Personalized rings are popular and include, for example, class rings, championship rings, and affiliation rings. With particular reference to class rings, these rings have been a popular keepsake among students for generations. Originally, class rings were relatively uniform and provided students little opportunity to express themselves. Over time, automated manufacturing processes made it possible to provide students customizing choices. Modern students are driving the class ring market toward a level of customization that has been previously economically impractical using present manufacturing methods.
Personalized rings include several areas that may be customizable for a particular student or school. As shown in FIG. 1, a class ring 2 includes a shank 4 having graphics or text, a stone or face 6 , and a bezel 8 having text. The bezel 8 is the portion of the ring 2 surrounding the gemstone or face 6. The bezel 8 comprises the groove holding the gemstone 6 in place and may further comprise a band with text surrounding the gemstone 6. FIG. 1 illustrates a bezel 8 such as is generally provided on class rings. As shown, the bezel 8 includes text such as the name of a school.
Most recently, computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technology has been used to provide the text on the bezel. CAD/CAM has facilitated producing customized rings in large quantities. The present level of customization provides personalized features such as: student's name, school name, graduation year, icons, academic degrees, and the like.
Traditionally, the use of CAD/CAM in the jewelry industry has been primarily focused on the manufacture of custom molds and engraving or otherwise machining the jewelry directly. These two approaches have limitations. Machining molds using CAD/CAM is too expensive for single-use custom applications. Engraving jewelry is also expensive due to the precious metal lost to scrap, manufacturing errors, and ordering errors.
CAD/CAM technology can be difficult to automate for the purpose of making personalized products. In one legacy system, a CAD/CAM operator manually manipulates a geometric model of a ring by grabbing a surface on the blank geometric model, defining the boundary splines, projecting the text or graphic onto the surface and then instructing the CAD/CAM software to generate machining instructions for the geometric model that has been created. The machining instructions result in a desired toolpath for a computer numerically controlled (“CNC”) milling machine. Using human operators to repeat these steps manually in order to generate the machining instructions for thousands of individual, personalized rings is cost prohibitive.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,108 for Automated Engraving of a Customized Jewelry Item, issued Jun. 27, 2006 discloses an automated system for personalizing a class ring and is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.